All in A Day's Work

Karys and I were upstairs in her room this morning where I was taking the sheet off her bed because she'd spit up a little in the night. I put her on this pillow/rug while I worked at removing the bedding. In about 5 minutes time, this is what she was doing:Apparently laying on a fluffy pillow rug is tiring work! :)

Karys's Message for the Day

And this picture is great because it shows what she does with her tongue all day!! :)
(Oh, and the back of the outfit has a little heart that says inside of it "and daddy loves me too.")

The Gift of A Happy Baby

I haven't taken any new pictures since my last post, so I'll just put up one of my favorites. This one was up on the screen at church during her dedication. :)

Today I have experienced a completely different baby...in a good way. My wonderful friend, Kristen, saved my sanity by loaning me her copy of the book, On Becoming Babywise. I have heard of this book for the last several years from many different people who said that following the principles outlined in the book led to their young babies sleeping through the night. However, I had not had a chance to purchase and read the book. Kristen brought it over to me last Thursday and I started reading immediately. I started really implementing the principles on Saturday. The biggest change for me was putting her in her crib when she showed signs of being tired and needing a nap and then leaving her there, crying or not. One of her naps really didn't qualify as a nap because it was lots of crying, with me returning at 15 minute intervals to pat her back or rock her again. But I stuck to the schedule and did not quit the naptime just because she was crying. Yesterday there was less crying during naps, as I'm sure she was starting to catch on to what was going on. Today, naps have been wonderful!! She only cried during one of them and I recognized it as a need for a new diaper so I went in immediately to fix the problem and she was fine after that. I have been able to accomplish so much more today without having to hold a crying or sleeping baby. And Karys has been happier as well. During her awake times she is happy and content. One of her awake times we spent in her room, unpackaging more toys!! :) I didn't realize one of the perks of mommyhood was getting to play with all the toys! ;) So basically I write all of this to say: THANK YOU, KRISTEN!! :)

If You Can't Tell...

I played around on Scrapblog now that I actually have a baby to take pictures of and created a new header! :) (Yeah, I tend to get tired of the same ol', same ol' and just like to change things up a bit!...Maybe I need help with contentment? ;)

My Little Ladybug

Just wanted to share a few cute pictures from today. I've been wanting her to wear this outfit for a long time and finally decided today was the day. :)

Don't the arms make you think she's saying, "Yay, Mommy!"? :)

This picture totally captures the cuteness of the outfit. (And I don't know why but any time I lay her on the floor her head turns to this side.)

In order to take an up-close picture of her I have to turn off the flash. Otherwise, her eyes close!! :) But don't you love that sweet little face?? :)

3 Weeks Already??!!

My sweet baby is already three weeks old!! Some days that feels like it's been an eternity but even on those days I still feel like, wow, she's already three weeks!! :) I'm starting to get the hang of some things. Our nighttime routine is working wonderfully. As in, I can tell that it's starting to set in for her because around 9:30 she starts getting really fussy so that's my cue that it's time to start getting ready for bed. I've just now put her in bed and she makes a few crying noises, but that only lasts a few minutes and then she falls asleep. Yay!! And most nights we wake her up twice to feed her (although sometimes she wakes us up) and she'll usually sleep until 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning. Hopefully that will continue after we're allowed to cut out all overnight feedings. I'm so glad she appears to love sleeping as much as Ryan and I do!!

Today I attempted to take some pictures of her and the expressions that she makes because she is so precious! She's always making adorable faces and she explores her tongue a lot. It is absolutely adorable! However, my pictures do not reflect her cuteness as much as I wanted them to. I'll still post a couple of them, but they turned out blurry and in some of them she looks more like a boy! :) Oh well...I'll keep trying. Maybe I should quit taking pictures on my camera's "auto" setting and start using the setting for moving objects! Hope you enjoy anyway!

Okay, this pictures doesn't look blurry if you look at it this size. When it's enlarged, it's blurry. But doesn't she look like she has no hair?? :) It almost looks like a different baby!! But there's the tongue thing I'm talking about!This one would be a lot cuter if she hadn't moved her arm! See the sad scrape on her knee? The wedge we had her sleeping in attacked her last night! Apparently, she moved around so much she knocked the wedge off its velcro. Then her sock got stuck to the velcro and somehow in all that mess, the velcro scratched her knee...poor baby! :( But she's a trooper!One of the better ones from tonight...still haven't fully captured her cuteness for the day though! :)

So Pretty!

I put this outfit on Karys today and she just looked so cute, I had to share. :)

Things are improving. The last two nights I started a bedtime routine with her. After her 10:00 bottle, we go upstairs and I sit in the rocker in her room. I pull out some little book and read a few pages to her, then I say a prayer for her: that Jesus would keep her safe and give her sweet dreams, etc. After that, I just sit there and rock her until she falls asleep and then put her into her bed. Now, in case you're concerned about me rocking her to sleep (you know, that I'm starting something that I'll have to continue forever), my intention is not to keep this up forever. However, from what I have read, a baby is unable to soothe themselves to sleep until about 2-3 months of age so hopefully at that point I'll be able to put her in her bed just slightly drowsy and let her get herself to sleep. She's still sleeping wonderfully. I put her down last night at around 10:30, when she finally fell asleep. Ryan got up at 2:30 this morning to feed her (we're cutting out one of her nighttime feedings) and put her back in bed. Then I got up at 7:00 to feed her again and she fell back asleep until around 9:30 or so. Yay!!

I've also figured out that she naps better during the day if I take her into her room. Whenever I put her somewhere in the living room to nap, she just isn't able to fall asleep soundly. Yesterday, I took her into her room when she fell asleep and she slept for an hour; I woke her up for her 4:00 bottle and she fell back asleep until her 7:00 bottle!! Then I did everything I could to keep her awake because I wanted to make sure she'd still sleep at night and she did! :) We even took our first walk around the neighborhood, using the stroller for the first time. She enjoyed it...at least until she wet her diaper. This girl cannot STAND for her diaper to be wet...she screams bloody murder!! My mom says that'll make it easy to potty train her. :)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We went for her 2 week check up yesterday. Not only is she back up to birth weight, she's added another 5 ounces...yay!! She was 20 3/4 inches long, which put her in the 66% for height (length? whatever.) and 7 lbs. 6 oz. which is only the 19% for weight! And she added another inch and a half to the circumference of her head. The doctor said she looked and sounded good and she was very good at answering our questions. Apparently everything we were concerned about is normal (such as...sometimes her breathing is very quick and shallow- apparently in her body's immaturity she forgets to breathe and then has to take several fast breaths to catch back up. Also, she has a bump on her head that is apparently fluid built up from the birth process that will go away. And when she sounds like she's wheezing it's stuff that's in her nose.) Thank goodness for pediatricians!!

What Can I Say...I Tried.

Breastfeeding is a no-go for me. I've tried it...I've tried to do it correctly and it just isn't going to work out for us. I got on some medicine to try and make my milk come in better. Unfortunately, the side effects from the medicine are just not worth it to find out if it was going to work or not. I tried it for 2 days. The first day I had trouble with a lot of restlessness that I didn't even think to associate with the medicine, until I had the same problem the next day. And by that point I was also dealing with wooziness. I'm okay with having a formula-fed baby, since that's what Ryan and I both were. The weird thing to me is that I feel like I'm the ONLY person doing that, since all of my friends breastfeed. Oh well...what's a girl to do? ;)

Here's a couple of pics my sister took the other day. The picture of Karys in the "my heart belongs to Mommy" onesie was the outfit I had her wear on my birthday. :) The pictures in the car were on the way to church for her dedication. Taking a newborn to church is a lot harder than it seems like it would be!! I'm not sure if we'll go back for awhile...either that, or our permanent place will be out in the foyer!! :)

Tomorrow she will be two weeks old. The last couple of days have been really good. She seemed to calm down and be more on the type of schedule I'd been told about for a newborn: "Eat. Play. Sleep." And I still can't complain about her overnight schedule...I have to wake her up for each overnight feeding!! I'm hoping at her two week appointment on Thursday that I'll be told we can cut out those overnight feedings and only feed her if she wakes up or something. That would be so wonderful!!

Still Lookin' Good

I've been a mommy for a whole week now!! :) Things just keep getting better and better. We went back to the hospital today for the one week check-up that is required for all babies. My sweet little baby had to have her heel pricked while she was asleep and it was probably one of the saddest sounds I have ever heard...she let out this pained shriek and I just wanted to cry with her! I know it will only get worse: one day I'll have to take her to the doctor and she'll know what a shot is and I'll be forced to hold her down. Oh my word, I cannot even think about that right now.

On the positive side, she was back up to 6 lbs. 11 1/2 oz. Yay!!! :) But now I have to talk to my OB about a medicine that will hopefully help my body produce milk. Yeah, as of right now, I'm sorta broken in that department! I've been pumping since Monday and each time, I only get about 1/4 oz. when I should be getting a lot more than that. But the nurse I talked to today said that this medicine (I think it's medicine...who knows it might be some kind of supplement or something like that) would hopefully help my body do what it's supposed to do. There was a name for what is probably going on. I remember the first word of it was "primary" because usually if it does happen to you, it only happens with your first pregnancy. My mom had the same thing happen, so it makes sense that it would happen to me. The nurse told me that even if she only gets a little bit of breast milk, a little is better than none at all. So I will faithfully keep up my pumping, even if the end result makes it feel like a waste of time. Apparently, it's better than nothing!! :) I will do my best to get some new pictures on here ASAP. :)

My Baby Slept in Her Own Bed!!

I am completely pumped about the above title. :) She slept in her bed last night!! It was like the biggest gift. I was able to sleep in my own bed and actually rest and relax. Supplementing her with formula is making a HUGE difference. Now I know she's actually filling herself up and that is such a relief. Of course, relief doesn't come without drama...at least not during this whole post-partum thing. The nursing contraption didn't work as wonderfully as I optimistically thought it would yesterday afternoon. It definitely helped her get food, but she is not doing well at latching on at all. So for our overnight feedings last night, we ended up only giving her formula because she was frustrated and I was frustrated and it just wasn't working out at all. Around 12:30 or so I had a major meltdown and Ryan was sweet enough to just hold me while I cried (okay, I can tell I'm overly emotional when just remembering it brings tears to my eyes!! :). I felt like I was failing her and I was feeling extremely upset that since she'd been born she'd basically been going hungry because she just wasn't getting all the milk she needed. Ryan reassured me that today at our appointment we'd be able to get some answers and suggestions and that I wasn't a failure. Thank goodness for sensitive husbands!!

We did get help at our appointment today. I told the lactation nurse that breastfeeding wasn't working so far and it was becoming very frustrating for me and for Karys. So we have a new solution now. She rented us a breast pump and I'm going to start pumping and adding in formula to give Karys two ounces of nutrition every three hours. She's downstairs with Ryan drinking her first bottle like this and it seems to be going well. This makes me happy...one reason being that he can help me with feedings!! :) Also, she was weighed again and gained 6 ounces from yesterday...yay!! We'll get a phone call later today to tell us how her blood work went. But so far, things are getting better. :)

Just A Bit of New Info

The nurse called back this evening to tell me the results of the jaundice blood work. Karys is at the level that needs to be monitored closely, so we're going back tomorrow morning to have her weighed again and have her blood drawn again. The nurse said she called our pediatrician who said that she does feel like this is the result of losing too much weight too fast and that this supplemental feeding will definitely help. When I fing out anything new, I will definitely post it.

LOTS of New Information

Let's start out with a sweet picture of this little girl (this is what she is currently doing!):

We have survived 2 nights at home with a newborn! Things are going pretty well...I guess as well as can be expected with a first-time mom. I never expected all of the worries that come along with this whole mommy-hood thing. Our first two nights at home have been good. On the first night, I felt like I was breaking every baby rule I've ever heard because she cried so much that night and the only thing that was soothing to her was to be held. So I spent the entire night in her room, either rocking her in the rocking chair or sleeping with her on the guest bed in the room. Every time we tried that night to put her in her own bed, she cried. Basically I was so exhausted that I did whatever it took to get that baby to sleep! :) And it worked: as long as I held her or snuggled with her on the bed, she would sleep. So I did manage to get some sleep that night. Last night, Ryan and I worked in shifts. I took her when we first went to bed and after her first feeding I passed her on to him. She slept with him in our bed until he decided to try and put her in her own bed. Apparently, he spent the next hour walking around with her because she was crying. He brought her back to me for her next feeding and I kept her for that shift. I fed her and then we fell asleep on the bed together. Both of us were sleeping so well that I didn't wake up until ten minutes after the 3 hour mark for her next feeding! Oops!! I fed her and took her back in to Ryan and he snuggled with her until it was time to get up and get ready for our appointment we had at the hospital today.

The appointment was scheduled for us before we left the hospital on Friday. Since Karys was slightly jaundiced, we had to return for a follow-up and have her blood taken again. The news from this appointment was slightly less than to be desired. At this point in time, she should have only lost 10% of her birth weight. Unfortunately, she's down an entire pound. I'd been feeling like the breastfeeding wasn't as successful as I thought it should be, but I didn't know how to fix it. Every time I would feed her, she would eat (usually pretty well) and stop after 10-15 minutes. However, after she stopped, she would start crying. So I'd try to feed her again, and she'd cry more. So I would stop, thinking she was finished. The place where we had our follow-up today was at the Lactation Center at Good Shepherd hospital. So that meant that the nurse helping us out was a lactation specialist. She's gotten me set up with this really cool contraption that will allow me to double-feed Karys. She's going to be getting breastmilk as well as 1 oz. of formula. This little contraption has a small bottle with a tiny tube attached to the nipple. This tube gets taped right up next to my nipple so that while she's sucking out breastmilk, it mixes with the formula. I fed her with this woman's help today and it was the most successful feeding ever. I actually felt like I knew she was getting nourishment and was satisfied because after we finished, she was completely conked out and stayed that way until we woke her up to feed her again. I feel like this nurse completely saved me because now I know how to help my baby. And I know that she's being nourished because I can watch the bubbles in the bottle of formula to know she's actually eating. I guess that's all the news we have for now...I will update how the results of the jaundice test go (we should find out later this afternoon).

And the good news: I was able to type this without holding a baby!! :) (I mean, come on! I love her, but my arms need a break!!) Thank goodness for feedings that work!

We're Back at Home!

I will start out with posting a picture of our new family. :)I tried to post the other day in the hospital, but Blogger wouldn't work for whatever reason. Most people received this information in an email, but for those who didn't, here's what I sent out:

I of course wanted to post last night but things got a little crazy!! Our precious baby girl, Karys Elizabeth is here!! She arrived yesterday at 5:20 p.m. weighing exactly 7 pounds and was exactly 20 inches long. Everything went really smoothly, for the most part. Some of what I ended up feeling was a little unexpected to me, but what everyone says is true: once she had arrived it made everything worth it and I really wasn't thinking about the pain I had been in before. We arrived at the hospital at 6:15 and the Pitocin was started at 7:00. My doctor came in around 8:45 to check me and break my water. I was given the epidural around 9:30, which was a very weird process. It made my blood pressure go way down and made me very nauseous so they had to give me some medicine and once I got that, I felt a lot better. I started feeling really badly around 2:30 because the pressure I was feeling couldn't be helped by anything, until we started the pushing stage. That was started at 5:00 and since she was born at 5:20, only took 20 minutes. :) That was the best part of the whole day!! My doctor ended up using suction on her head to help her get out because her heart rate was starting to drop. She's absolutely precious and we love her so much!!

Now we are back at home. We were discharged around 1:30 this afternoon. The pediatrician came in this morning and said Karys looked great and she had no concerns so we weren't going to have to stay the 48 hours we thought we'd originally be in for. We do have to go back to the hospital on Sunday and have her heel pricked again because she's slightly jaundiced. Things are going really well so far. She's a good baby...really never cries unless something is wrong. In the hospital she was really content laying in her bed and watching everything that was going on around her. I feel so blessed to have this sweet little girl in my life and I can't believe God has given her to us. :)

As far as how I'm doing, I'm still a little sore, but it's really not too bad. And my doctor sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin so it's all good!! :) Thanks to everyone for all of your prayers and for all of our great hospital visitors!! :)

And now to leave you with more pictures:

This is my sister's favorite picture of Karys because of how cute her tongue is!!

Here is me with my precious baby girl:

And her is Karys with her daddy, who is head over heels for his baby girl!